Strategic thoughts from ACHCA's new leader - Business Strategies - American College of Health Care Administrators has new leader Mary Tellis-Nayak - Interview

Nursing Homes, March, 2002 by Laura Hyatt

Hyatt: Have you noticed any changes in the organization during the brief time that you've been with it?

Tellis-Nayak: Members are very appreciative when I visit their chapters, attend their conventions and speak at their meetings. Many members seem more hopeful, and there appears to be increased enthusiasm and interest; members who had left the organization are returning. We can't let them down.

Hyatt: If we were to revisit a year from now, what would you like to have accomplished by then?

Tellis-Nayak: I hope by then to have met many of our administrators and to have strengthened our membership. I would like to upgrade our educational offerings, including procuring funding to develop state-of-the-art educational materials, and work with our agency partner to increase administrator certification by 100% through computer-based testing. I also hope to have made our administrators' voices heard in Washington and in other regulatory venues.

I would like to express my appreciation to Ms. Tellis-Nayak for generously sharing her wisdom and time. As always, I would also like to thank the readers who write in support of this column. Ideas that you feel would be helpful to readers should be addressed to Laura Hyatt at surfsup@att.net. Be sure to include your name, the name of your organization, address and phone number with area code.

Laura Hyatt, MBA, is president of Hyatt Associates and a member of the business faculty at Mount St. Mary's College.